Stockman aide's mailer stirs up Texas Senate race

Rep. Steve Stockman, seen in an undated photo pulled from his official House website Jan. 3, 2014, serves the people of the 36th Congressional District of Texas,

Rep. Steve Stockman, seen in an undated photo pulled from his...

The increasingly eccentric campaign of U.S. Rep. Steve Stockman is sparking a new controversy in the closing days of the Texas GOP primary with a former aide's newspaper-like mailer trashing incumbent U.S. Sen. John Cornyn.

The mailer resembles two previous incidents in Stockman's political career, both last year and in the 1990s, when Stockman's campaigns were investigated in connection with campaign materials resembling newspapers.

The first case resulted in fines by the Federal Election Commission and the second was dismissed last year.

The latest incident involves The Conservative News, a 16-page mailer distributed by the Center for the American Future, a nonprofit corporation registered by Jason Posey, a former Stockman campaign aide and congressional staffer.

Cornyn campaign spokesman Drew Brandewie took to Twitter to lambaste the publication as part of a broader campaign of dodging and misinforming voters. "In sum," Brandewie wrote, "Stockman refuses to campaign or answer Qs from media, but sends fake, deceptive newspapers to Texans attacking his opponent w/lies."

The dust-up over the mailer adds a new layer of mystery to an unconventional campaign noted for its lack of fundraising, advertising and public appearances by a candidate who went missing for much of January while he traveled overseas.

Stockman spokesman Donny Ferguson did not respond Monday to calls and emails from the Houston Chronicle seeking comment.

Posey, in an email, denied involvement by the Stockman campaign. "Stockman is not involved," he said. "The Conservative News does not advocate the election or defeat of any candidate."

But some Texas Republicans noted that the newspaper, which is also available online, uses many of the same images, phrases and topics as Stockman campaign literature distributed at a recent Williamson County GOP meeting. For example, a "Texas Conservative News" scorecard comparing Stockman and Cornyn on the new federal health care law, immigration and the Second Amendment use three identical questions and answers, along with the same photos.

Posey's nonprofit, based in Webster, in Stockman's 36th District, was registered with the Texas secretary of state last August. At the time, Posey was still a staffer in Stockman's congressional office. He was fired last October after disclosures that he and another staffer had made prohibited contributions to Stockman, an unorthodox candidate who became a born-again Christian after a period of homelessness.

But that overlap, along with Posey's long history as a Stockman campaign operative, could raise questions about potential illegal coordination or excessive contributions, campaign experts say.

As a private citizen, Posey is free to publish a newspaper, said former FEC general counsel Larry Noble, now head of the watchdog group Americans for Campaign Reform. "But if there's a close relationship, it raises questions of coordination," he said.

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One of the factors investigators might consider, Noble said, is whether the publication covered anything besides the campaign. Posey's newspaper appears to be singularly focused on criticizing Cornyn, although Posey said his organization plans upcoming publications in Alaska and Montana.

Posey, who was Stockman's 2013 campaign treasurer, was connected to an FEC probe in the early 1990s looking at a political consulting firm and a pro-Stockman newspaper called the Southeast Texas Times, which was published out of Stockman's house. The allegations included failure to report expenses associated with the paper and failure to correctly label it as campaign material. The upshot was a 1998 conciliation agreement in which the Stockman campaign admitted to campaign finance violations and paid a $40,000 fine.

That case concluded Stockman's first two-year stint in Congress, from 1995 to 1997.

His 2012 campaign also came under scrutiny for another batch of newspapers distributed in the 36th District, allegedly without being properly disclosed as campaign publications.

Last April, the FEC's general counsel recommended that the commission find "reason to believe" that the Stockman campaign violated election laws by failing to properly identify the Southeast Texas Courier and the Times Free Press. The commission, however, declined to accept the recommendation on a party-line 3-2 vote.